Overall Member Rating

Wonderful Rivers of Europe

Sail Date:
October 2010
Destination:
Baltic Sea
Embarkation:
Paris

We started our Viking River "Cities of Light" cruise four days early by visiting friends in Western France trekking all Brittany and the Normandy Coast. Then on to Paris for the official start of the tour. The Paris Pullman Tour Eiffel hotel we checked in to was delightful. The rooms were large, the beds comfortable, the food excellent and the service superb. We spent two days seeing the sights of Paris (we had been there many times before) and this beautiful city again didn't fail us. Then on to Trier to board our ship Viking Fontane to begin our true river tour. What a WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE!!! The stateroom was excellent, the food magnificent, the wines with meals excellent, and the crew service was without peer. The Viking crew never failed to amaze with their willingness to cater to our needs and their cheerful demeanor. The itinerary sailing the Mosel to the Rhine to the Main to the Danube Canal to Nuremberg and then on by motor coach to Prague was well selected and filled More
with places to see and things to do. Sailing at night from port to port that left days filled with walking tours of German cities like Cochem, Koblenz, Rudesheim, Wurzberg, Bamberg, was enervating as well as enabling us not the gain the weight we normally might have eating all of the wonderful shipboard fare! Even the breakdown on the bus ride to Prague we fun -- we spent the time exploring a local industrial park and found "Hans" and "Fritz," two German Shepherd guard dogs who didn't appreciate our arrival.

Arrival in Prague was late but our rooms at Prague Hilton were ready and were of the same high quality as those in Paris. We decided to extend our trip by three days and found Prague to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We changed our hotel to the Best Western Prague Palace and would recommend this hotel to any who visit Prague. The view out our window was the Presidential Palace and St. Vitus cathedral lit beautifully at night. This small, intimate hotel with its lovely lounge, dining room and lobby is made even more wonderful by the service and smiles of its employees. Roman the Bell Captain would make any guest's experience a comfortable and happy one!

In all aspects this tour and Viking River Cruises are "bucket list" experiences. Less

Port and Shore Excursions

Too much has been said of this beautiful city! All of it is true! There is so much to see and do in Paris that in order to fully appreciate its complexities one would have to literally live here for a lifetime! To the visitor for days only, you don't really scratch the surface. If you have the opportunity to visit many times, then choose a specific location and spend all your time there each time.